Which to use
“ballon” and “ballons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,983
- “ballon” frequency rank
- #9,121
- “ballons” frequency rank
- 12104
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ballon | ballons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet de forme sphérique, généralement composée d’une vessie gonflée d’air et recouverte de cuir ou de plastique et servant à jouer. | Pluriel de ballon. |
Same sound, different letters: ballon vs ballons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - ballon and ballons
This is the hard kind. ballon and ballons are pronounced identically (\ba.lɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ballon” sits inside “ballons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ballon is recorded at frequency rank #2,983, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.lɔ̃\. ballons is at rank #9,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.lɔ̃\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 12104, this pair ranks #406,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ballon vs ballons
Shared letters: ablno. Private to "ballon": -. Private to "ballons": s.
"ballon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "ballons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ballon" for "ballons" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ballon" or "ballons"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "ballon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ballons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ballon" and "ballons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bâillon vs ballons". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #406,561 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.